An armored personnel carrier used by U.S. troops to fight insurgents on the battlefield is making its way to the University of California thanks to a $200,000 dollar grant from the Department of Homeland Security.

“The eight-ton vehicle, commonly referred to as a “Bearcat,” is used by U.S. troops on the battlefield and is often equipped with a rotating roof hatch, powered turrets, gun ports, a battering ram, and a weapon system used to remotely engage a target with lethal force,” writes Campus Reform’s Josiah Ryan.

UCPD spokesman Lt. Eric Tejada justified the purchase by pointing to an event last year when a man was reported to be carrying an AK-47 assault rifle on campus, despite the fact that the incident turned out to be a false alarm.

University of Virginia Professor Dewey Cornell slammed the purchase as overkill, pointing out that the average U.S. college has a homicide only about once every 480 years on average.

“With all we hear we hear about the federal deficit itâ€™s a shame there is money available for things like this but not for prevention,” said Cornell. “If a university has to resort to a Bearcat that means there is a failure somewhere else.”

A d v e r t i s e m e n t

However, Berkeley City Council has made it clear that the heavily armored vehicle will not just be used to respond to violent incidents, noting in a recent meeting that the APC, “Is needed for ‘large incidents’ such as CAL games and the Solano Stroll.”

The Bearcat is being provided to law enforcement agencies across the country by means of grants obtained under the DHS’s Urban Areas Security Initiative.

Larry Welkowitz, a Professor of Psychology at Keene State College, labeled the purchase “catastrophic thinking,” noting that the government was exploiting a culture of fear to militarize domestic law enforcement.

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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show and Infowars Nightly News.